


Up Too Late

by findmeinthevoid



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Crack, Gen, a bit of suggestive content, at least i dont think so?, but it was fun to write, credit to lotus for letting me use her idea, dont try this at home, nothing too severe, these kids need sleep, this is literally crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-20 23:42:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14272110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findmeinthevoid/pseuds/findmeinthevoid
Summary: Nathaniel stays over at Marinette's house while working on an art project. Crack ensues.idea from @lotus-duckies on tumblr





	1. The Sleepover

**Author's Note:**

> What even is this?

“I’m never coloring another leaf again,” Marinette announced, halfway through shading another one of the countless spring buds that decorated the piece of board. “If it wasn’t for the fact that this is Mylene’s first performance live, on-stage, I’d probably have just given up and gotten Manon and Alya’s little sisters to color the rest in.” She sighed, putting down the pencil and massaging her wrist.

“Yeah, well, we did promise we’d help,” Nathaniel reminded her from his place near the roots. “And trees take a lot of detail; you can’t just _fill_ them in, you have to _shade_ them.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re only drawing the outline. Meanwhile I’m the one tiring my arms out making sure every shadow is at the right angle,” she grumbled. “Why is this taking so long?!”

“Good question,” the redhead agreed. “Actually, what time is it, even? We’ve been working for, what, hours?”

Marinette clicked on her phone and the digits _21:52_ filled the illuminated screen.

“Nine o’clock?!” she screeched.

“Have we really been doing this for that long?” Nathaniel asked, looking up at her in shock.

“Ughhh, you know what? Screw this tonight, we’ll do more tomorrow. It is _way_ too late to be doing this,” Marinette decided, putting her pencil down with finality.

Nathaniel put his things away too, yawning and stretching his arms.

“It’s too late to go home, now, though,” he pointed out.

“Don’t worry, you can just stay over for the night,” Marinette assured him. He stopped and blinked at her for a few moments.

“I’m sorry, what?” he asked, shaking his head.

“A sleepover, silly!” she giggled, tossing a pillow at his head. “Don’t tell me that working this long has tired out your basic comprehension skills.”

“Right, well, see, I don’t have my clothes, and I’m sure your parents wouldn’t want to be bothered with-”

“Relax. They’ll be fine, Alya’s slept over lots of times when we were working on projects that took too long.”

“Yeah, but that’s Alya-”

“So? Same thing; now help me put this stuff away. I think I’ll get sick if I look at another blank leaf tonight.”

Nathaniel sighed and assisted her in moving the board against the wall so they could get back to it later, and collecting all the pencil crayons from their sprawled places.

“I don’t have my pajamas, though...” he mentioned, leaning under the chaise to pick up a sky blue.

“That’s fine, you can just wear some of my clothes,” Marinette said. “I’m sure they’d fit you. I hope you don’t mind that they’re all pink.”

“No, it’s fine,” he agreed, standing up and dusting off his pants. Marinette stood up too, and went to her closet to find him some clothes. He took them and disappeared into the bathroom to change.

A moment later, he came back out in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt, both a light shade of pink that mirrored the light blush on his cheeks.

“You look fine!” Marinette smiled encouragingly.

“At least nobody else can see me like this,” he mumbled quietly. “Now what?”

“Hm..” Marinette thought. “I’m not really feeling like sleeping just yet. Maybe we could play a video game,” she suggested.

“Mm, I’ll pass,” Nathaniel replied. “You’d beat me on every level no sweat.”

“I’m sure you’re not bad,” she assured him.

“Yeah? You obviously haven’t seen me, then. I can barely figure the controls out, let alone use them.”

“Your choice,” she shrugged. “Hm, how about board games then. “Why don’t we play Monopoly, but it’s a race to see who can go bankrupt first.”

“Sure, why not?” he agreed, and so, a few minutes later, they sat before a board set-up and ready to play.

***

“What, no! That’s not fair! You landed on my house on purpose, dang it! At this rate I’ll have so much money I could buy the whole board and still have cash left over,” Marinette complained. Meanwhile, Nathaniel was rather smugly diminishing his cash stock to a few 5M bills.

“Well, it’s your fault for buying houses instead of hotels because you make less profit off of them,” he said.

“Well you don’t have to be so conceited about it,” Marinette objected, picking up her playing piece and tossing it at him playfully.

He responded by adding five extra bills to her stack. She raised an eyebrow.

“Dang it, I knew the game was rigged! I should have known you would cheat when I made you the banker!” she glared, picking up the entire game board and folding it in half. All the cards and pieces and houses fell to the floor.

“Whoa, sore loser much?” Nathaniel asked her, eyes widening. “I didn’t realize you’d take it so personally!”

“And I didn’t realize you’d play so dirty, so this game is void,” she replied, sticking out her tongue. He rolled his eyes, but they both knew that neither of them were particularly serious.

“Whatever, let’s just play something else. Monopoly takes forever to win, anyways,” the redhead suggested.

“Hm, how about ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

Nathaniel paled slightly.

“Don’t worry, there won’t be anything super personal. If you don’t want to answer, it’s okay,” Marinette quickly assured him.

“O-okay, sure,” he shrugged.

“Alright, then, I’ll start. Hmm, never have I ever...watched a horror movie alone at night,” she finally decided.

“That makes two of us,” he shuddered. “I can barely stand horror movies even if I’m not alone in broad daylight.”

“Would you watch one if I was with you?”

“Hmm...probably not.”

Marinette pouted.

“And what if I was close enough that I could hug you during the scary parts?”

Nathaniel thought it over.

“Mm…...maybe...” he relented. “Not this late at night, though,” he added quickly.

“Works for me,” she said. “Your turn.”

“Let me think, uh….never have I ever dreamt of kissing a marshmallow,” he finally came up with.

Marinette choked on air.

“What kind of confession is that?!” she asked.

“Well, it’s true. Rose told me that she had a dream once where she had to pick between marrying a unicorn or a marshmallow.” he shrugged. “Couldn’t think of anything else.”

“Well, uh, neither have I...” Marinette answered. “Or any kind of edible for that matter.”

The redhead chuckled.

“Well I _did_ dream about blueberries once, but that was a long time ago,” he admitted.

“That’s so weird,” Marinette giggled, oblivious to the odd look he sent her way.

He shrugged.

“I dream weird things sometimes...” he told her. “What’s the weirdest dream you’ve ever had?”

Marinette frowned, thinking.

“Well, I don’t usually manage to dream most nights because I end up staying up super late doing homework or sewing or something, but, uh...the weirdest dream _I_ had? I think this one time I had a dream where Chat Noir was telling me he was in love with me and then he started chasing me and I was running away, but then he stopped and turned into Adrien and I felt so bad because why on Earth would I _ever_ run away from _Adrien_?” she sighed dreamily. “But anyways, I was so confused and scared that he wouldn’t like me anymore that I woke up, and _thank goodness_ it was only a dream...” she froze, clapping a hand over her mouth.

“I said too much, didn’t I?” she asked embarrassedly, lowering her hand.

Nathaniel laughed lightly.

“It’s okay, I already knew,” he confessed. When she looked confused, he went on.

“I mean, not to sound creepy or anything, but since no one usually talks to me, I just end up watching people. You seem kind of awkward around him, so I figured...” he trailed off.

“Am I _that_ obvious?” she asked softly.

“No no no, not at all!” he assured her quickly. “I’m pretty sure I’m like the only one. Adrien’s too oblivious to notice anything, and I wouldn’t tell anyone,” he promised.

“It probably doesn’t even matter, anyways,” she sighed sadly. “He’s never going to see me the way...”

“Don’t say that, Marinette, he’ll have to figure it out some way or other. Once he discovers how lucky he really is, there’s no way he could turn you down!”

Marinette looked up.

“You really think?”

“I know for a fact. You’re an amazing person, he just hasn’t realized just how amazing you really are yet,” he said.

“That’s so sweet of you, Nathaniel,” the bluenette told him.

“Anytime,” he smiled. For once he found himself able to smile at her genuinely, and, despite the little pain that still throbbed in his chest, he realized that if he could have her even as a friend, that would be good enough for him.

“Okay, enough of this. I wanna do something,” Marinette decided suddenly, a mischevious glint in her eyes.

“O-kay...?” Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. “Any reason for that not-at-all suspicious expression on your face right now?”

“Oh you’ll see,” she grinned evilly, producing her cell phone out of thin air. “We’re going to have some fun.”

“Um..okay...but I don’t know if this is a good ide-”

“Shush,” she cut him off with a finger on his lips as she dialled a number and waited for someone to pick up.

“At least dial *67 first!” he said, staring at the screen.

“Oh? Why?” she asked.

“The caller ID shows up otherwise!” he screeched. “Have you never prank-called before?!”

Marinette blinked.

“You’ve prank-called before?” she asked disbelievingly. “I’d never have imagined you...but anyways, I’m using an internet calling service so it’ll just show up as an unavailable number,” she explained.

“Okay, phew,” he sighed in relief. “Let’s just hope we don’t get caught. Don’t do anything extreme.”

“Relax, I got this.”

Marinette hummed softly until the person on the other end finally picked up. Nathaniel moved closer to hear what they were saying, and she put the call on speaker.

 _“Chloe Bourgeois; who dares to disturb me at this time of the night?!”_ Marinette flinched and held the phone away from their faces, stifling a giggle all the same.

“You got the stuff?” Marinette spoke, voice ridiculously exaggerated since she had pinched her nose to disguise it. She had apparently been attempting some variation of a gangster voice, but was failing miserably at it. “I’ll be waiting in the back alley. Be there at midnight, _or else_.”

“ _Who the hell is this? Are you threatening me? Oh, just you wait until my father hears about this. You’ll be sorry you ever-_ ”

Marinette calmly cut the line. Nathaniel sighed.

“You are honestly such an amateur,” he told her, shaking his head. She rolled her eyes.

“It wasn’t _that_ bad,” she said. “It’s not like you could do any better.”

“Oh, really?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “Try me.”

Marinette looked at him, surprised.

“Fine,” she decided. “Show me what you got.”

“Oh I will,” he assured her. “You can pick the number, by the way.”

“I’ll do that,” she murmured, scanning the local directory and finally choosing one at random. She passed him the phone once it had started dialling.

“ _Allo?_ ”

The voice sounded like it belonged to a high school girl. Marinette wondered if Nathaniel would be able to handle this one, but one look at his remarkably relaxed posture and the easy smile on his face told her he’d be just fine. _What?_

“ _Hey babe, I was wondering when I’d get to hear that sweet, sweet voice of yours again..._ ” Nathaniel’s voice took on a completely unprecedented smoothness, and Marinette was left staring in surprise. _...wHAT???_

“ _I’m sorry, who is this?_ ” the girl on the other end sounded very confused and a bit embarrassed, from what Marinette could tell.

“ _It doesn’t matter_ ,” he whispered, voice low and even smoother than it was before. “ _All that matters is me and you tonight_.”

Marinette’s brain was short-circuiting; _what the hell happened to the shy, sweet guy who was sitting there just a few minutes ago???_

“ _Oh, um, okay? Er, what do want to do, then?_ ” Marinette very much pitied the flustered receiver.

“ _That’s really up to you, honey. What do_ you _wanna do tonight?_ ”

“ _Well, uh, my parents aren’t home, do you maybe wanna…?_ ”

Nathaniel suddenly choked on air, dropping the phone. Marinette hurried to pick it up before it hit the floor, quickly closing the call while Nathaniel launched into a coughing fit.

“Well that backfired,” the aspiring fashion designer remarked.

“She must have been a high schooler,” the redhead managed between coughs. “I wasn’t expecting her to go _that_ far!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle.

“We’re lucky she didn’t go to Françoise Dupont, at least,” she said. “I never knew you could talk like that.”

“I don’t usually,” he admitted. “But Alix loves prank calls and I basically ended up practicing in anonymity. I also watch a lot of movies, so there’s that...”

“Hmm..that gives me another idea...” Marinette said slowly.

“Do share.”

“I wonder if you could pull the same thing off with someone who we actually know in real life...” she said, half to herself. Nathaniel paled.

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.”

***

“How many times are we going to have to pause this?” Nino asked, exasperated, at the sixth time the phone must have rung this evening alone. “Your sisters wouldn’t leave us alone for two hours, and now that they’re asleep, we get another phone call every five minutes.”

“I hope it isn’t Chloe this time. Why does she think you’re trying to deal drugs with her?”

Nino shrugged.

“Beats me. Just answer it so we can get on with the movie already.”

“It’s from Marinette,” Alya frowned, tapping the screen.

They were met with a high scream that would’ve woken Alya’s sisters if her phone had been on speaker.

“Marinette?! What happened?” she asked worriedly. No response. The brunette anxiously held the phone closer to her ear to pick up some kind of hint.

_“AHHHHHHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahahaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh...”_

“Marinette? What the heck is going on-”

_“I’m not letting go until you say it!”_

“Nathaniel?! The heck are you doing at-”

_“Ah-ah-ah-ahahahahahah-I-can’t-I just-ahhhhahahahah...”_

“...are you okay?”

_“Say it...”_

_“NOOOOO-ahahahahahahhhh..”_

Nino looked up at Alya, expressing mirroring hers.

‘What the actual hell is going on?’ he mouthed at her. She shook her head in bafflement.

_“Say my name and I’ll let you go..”_

_“Na-agh-ahah-stop-nath-I-ohmi-ahahaha-NATHANI-AHAHAHAHAHAH”_

_“Come on, say it…..”_

_“Ahhhahahahah-nath-aha-natha-ack-NATHANIEL-aghh-now let me GO, goddammit!”_

Alya turned to her boyfriend, wide-eyed.

“You don’t think they’re...”

“But from what it _sounds_ like they’re doing...” He shook his head quickly.

“No. it can’t be.”

“But then again...” she gestured at the phone, which was currently transmitting sounds of rather heavy breathing. They both stared at it for a few long moments.

“You know what, I think I’d rather just continue the movie.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

***

“Aw, she hung up on us,” Nathaniel complained, moving so Marinette had space to catch her breath.

“Damn, Nathan, who knew you’d get so aggressive in a _tickle_ fight?!” she said between pants. Her face was as red as his hair as this point.

“Need some water?”

She nodded vigorously and he poured her a glass from the jug on her vanity. When she’d finally gathered herself, she put the glass down and looked at him.

“I guess that’s enough for one night, yeah?”

“Mhmm...” he yawned. “Where are we sleeping?”

“I’m sure you can fit onto my chaise lounge,” she told him. “Unless you want the bed, but after what just happened on the phone, I think that might bring up some questionable stuff,” she noted.

“No kidding, I’ll take the chaise. I might be up for a little while later, though. I have trouble falling asleep, especially in unfamiliar places.”

Marinette nodded.

“I guess I’ll just keep you company until I fall asleep. I’m not really in a mood to get down to bed just yet, either.”

“You sure?” Nathaniel asked, glancing at her drooping eyelids and slouching posture.

“Mmmhm,” she responded in assurance.

“Yeah, no.”

“Mmmm..” she mumbled, resting her head against the chaise. They sat like that in silence for some time, before he spoke up.

“Marinette?”

She didn’t respond.

He shrugged and, with some effort, picked her up and lay her down on the chaise. Then he curled up beside the piece of furniture, and, before even realizing it, he, too, had fallen fast asleep.


	2. The Morning After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> some people wanted a continuation, so I delivered :)

Marinette woke up somewhere around 2am. She blinked around blearily for a moment, eyes adjusting to her surroundings before realizing how early it was, and the fact that she wasn’t sleeping in her own bed. She flailed around for a few moments, meaning to try and sit up, but relaxed and gave in once she came to. It was then that she heard the faintest of murmurs, straining her ears and willing herself to stay still to hear what they were saying. The murmuring stopped for a second, and she glanced around, looking for the source when she noticed something else. _Oh, right, Nathaniel was staying over the night._

She blinked and moved her head a bit closer to his. He was snoring softly, but also mumbling something under his breath that she couldn’t catch. She leaned closer yet, but as quietly as possible so she wouldn’t disturb him.

_“...I’m going to miss you, Marinette...”_

Marinette froze involuntarily. She quickly crawled back to her previous place, curling up to create as much distance between them as possible, and hid her head in between her legs and her chest. She could feel her face heating up and silently screamed at herself to stay quiet.

 _I didn’t hear anything,_ she reminded herself. _Just go back to sleep and pretend you never woke up…_

***

The next time Marinette woke up, sunlight was flooding the entire attic and she was the only one in the room. Her clothes sat in a neatly folded pile in front of her closet, but Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen. She looked around in confusion, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, when it finally occurred to her how late it must have been. She looked around for her phone, finding it somewhere under the chaise, and clicked it on: the screen read _9:01._

Marinette nearly dropped the device and immediately activated panic mode. She scrambled to gather her things from all around the room and change her clothes as fast as possible. She grabbed a croissant from downstairs, raced down the stairs and sprinted inside the school building. There, she slowed down and paused long enough to only just catch her breath before throwing open the classroom door.

“Sorry I’m late!” she screeched, throwing herself towards her seat before Mme Bustier called her out again.

Only, Mme Bustier was nowhere to be seen. In fact, none of the students seemed to be sitting quietly at their own desks as usual this morning.

“I’ll have you know that my father can easily have you arrested and thrown in jail for drugs,” Chloe announced.

Marinette turned and was surprised to see that the object of the blonde’s declaration was none other than Nino. She stared uncomprehendingly, and Nino, too, looked similarly nonplussed.

“Chloe, for the last time, I swear, I don’t know what’s going on with you, but I never once called last night.”

“Oh really?” the heiress asked skeptically. “I got a call last night threatening me if I didn’t go to some shady alleyway at midnight. Who else could it be?”

Nino looked incredibly exasperated as he struggled to convince Chloe that it wasn’t him who had called, and Marinette was just about to intervene herself when Alya came up to her.

“About time you showed up,” she said, unimpressed. “Now spill.”

“Wha-what do you mean?” Marinette asked, more confused yet.

“Come on, girl, don’t beat around the bush. You know what I’m talking about!” When Marinette still looked baffled as ever, the blogger sighed and leaned in. “You know,” she said meaningfully. “What’s up between you and Nath?”

Marinette blinked several times.

“I’m sorry, what?” she asked.

Alya arched an unconvinced eyebrow.

“Nathaniel,” she repeated, as if that might surface an inkling of recognition in Marinette’s mind.

“Yeah...what about him?” Marinette responded doubtfully.

Alya rolled her eyes.

“Fine, guess I’ll just have to spell it out for you. Last night, apparently, Nathaniel stayed over at your place and you two got up to some... _interesting_...activities...hm?” she raised an eyebrow suggestively. “Come on, now, give me all the deets, girl!”

Marinette stared, realization dawning on her.

“Ohhh, you think-ohh, okay, no, nevermind, no-NO! Now I know what you’re talking about...yeah, no, you’re totally wrong, it’s not like that, you’ve got it all wrong...”

***

Meanwhile, Nino had finally managed to pull himself away from Chloe’s paranoid scrutiny and cornered Nathaniel at the back of the room.

“Honestly, dude, I would _never_ have imagined _you_ as that kind of person!” he expressed in incredulity.

“I’m...not?” Nathaniel asked dubiously. “What are we talking about, again?”

“Sure, man, go ahead and deny it now. I guess you never do know what to expect with the quiet ones…” Nino shook his head, sighing. “Seriously, though, I totally had you down for this meek, shy, socially awkward guy. Who'd've thought?”

Nathaniel stared in confusion.

“I'm sorry, _what_ happened?” he asked.

Nino looked at him in disbelief.

“So you're telling me you _weren't_ at Marinette’s last night?”

“Well, yeah, I was-oh. _Oh._ I see, now…” the redhead let out a shaky breath of relief. “So that's all. I was scared something happened that I didn't know about…”

“And you're totally fine that you spent the night at a girl's place where you proceeded to reveal that this innocent shy guy is all a facade?!”

“Come on, you're making it sound like we actually did something questionable-”

Nino stared in shock.

“What are you talking about?! That's exactly what happened!”

Nathaniel's mouth went dry.

“I, huh? Wha-what d’you mean?” he stammered. “You don't think we were… _that_ , do you?”

“What else am I supposed to be thinking?” Nino replied bewildered. “We got a call from her place last night, nobody was responding but from what it sounding like was going on,” he gestured meaningfully. “ _Y’know…_ ”

“I...um...sorry, I just…don't know how to respond to that, er… Lemme just tell you that I _swear, that_ is _not_ what was going on, okay?” he asked, almost desperately. “Please tell me no one else knows about this?”

“Well, yeah, why would we tell anyone???” Nino assured him. “Alya’s going nuts, though, she totally thinks you two are having some kind of secret affair-”

“No!” Nathaniel cut him off, pulling away and running to the front of the room, where Alya was interrogating Marinette.

“Hey, Nathaniel, maybe you'll give me some straight answers-” Alya started when she noticed him.

“It's not what you think it is!” he insisted quickly.

She paused, looking back and forth between the two.

“Well,” she shrugged, “if you guys are gonna keep denying it, no point trying to get any answers out of you…” She sighed disappointedly, but stopped questioning Marinette nonetheless.

Nathaniel went to the back of the room after that, and Mme Bustier arrived a few moments later.

“Sorry, class, I ran late this morning and couldn't get here on time,” she apologized, signaling the beginning of class.

Nino quickly slid into the seat next to Adrien, who shifted closer and leaned in.

“Say, what was that all about back there with Nathaniel?” he asked.

“Nothing you have to worry about,” the DJ assured his friend. Adrien shrugged and turned back to the lesson.

***

Adrien wasn't the only one confused and concerned about the incident. Marinette and Nathaniel found themselves being plagued by curious glances all day, and by the time they were dismissed to go home, even Marinette was ready to change her address and move a couple continents away. She assured herself she wasn't being paranoid, but she could self-consciously sense inevitable rumors floating around the school.

***

They decided to meet up at Nathaniel's place this time. His house was further away and more isolated from all the curiosity hovering around the bakery apartment.

Marinette treated herself to a snack that Nathaniel's mom had left out for them, then they both went to his bedroom. Marinette shrugged off her bag and threw herself against the softest platform available, which just so happened to be his bed. She pulled one of his pillows out from underneath her and hugged it to her chest.

“Ughhh, that was the worst,” she expressed hopelessly.

Nathaniel sighed in accord and settled into his desk chair.

“I'm really regretting those prank calls, now,” he agreed. “More trouble than they're worth.”

Marinette nodded glumly.

“So, I guess we're not working on the decorations tonight?” he asked.

“Mm, the stuff is at my place and I don't wanna go back there right now,” she mumbled, forcing herself to sit up.

She got up off the bed and went to Nathaniel's closet, pulling it open.

“Say, were my clothes too loose, you said?” she asked thoughtfully.

“A bit, yeah.”

“And your own? You're always cuffing your sleeves and pants.”

“It isn't really easy to find stuff in my size that doesn't have a super-childish logo plastered on it,” he shrugged. “I like this style, but it didn't come in a small-enough size. This shirt was size extra-small and it only fit me properly after, like, three times in the wash.”

“I could design you some if you want,” she offered. “I sewed practically my entire wardrobe. I could make something for you too.”

“I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience,” he assured her.

“I'd love to, honestly,” she told him.

“Well, uh, okay, then,” he relented.

For some time, there wasn't much talking, just Marinette rustling around, taking measurements and making notes on his style. Finally, she put the last sweatshirt back in the closet and stepped away, a sheet of references in hand. She put it away in her backpack for safekeeping, then returned to Nathaniel's room.

“So, about last night, huh?” Nathaniel asked once she had settled into a comfortable place on the floor.

“Ugh, Alya's never going to let me hear the end of it,” she groaned.

“Mm, but what about the others?” he asked. “Nino swore he wouldn't tell anyone, but I guess they already know something or other. Chloe thinks it was Nino who sent that first prank call.”

“Well, we definitely don't know the person who got the second one, and they most probably won't recognize is ever, so that's one good thing…”

“And after the third one, Alya’s convinced we're a couple or something,” he finished. “She wouldn't believe you, would she?”

Marinette shook her head.

“It's fine, though, we both know that you still like Adrien,” he said in an attempt to brighten the mood.

It seemed to have the opposite effect, however. Marinette looked horrified.

“Oh my gosh,” she groaned, stuffing her face into a nearby pillow. “I completely forgot. What is _Adrien_ going to think after this?!”

“He doesn't know, though…” Nathaniel supplied.

“But he could find out! What if he thinks we're a couple and that I don't like him! That would be the actual absolute _worst!_ ” she sighed hopelessly. “My life is _ruined!_ ”

“I promise it won't be that bad,” Nathaniel consoled. “If he thinks anything is going on between us, I'll make sure he gets the facts straight. I could even stay away from you so he doesn't get the wrong message,” he suggested. Marinette looked up and glared.

“So you want to leave me, too?” she asked, distraught.

“Nonono, it's the opposite actually,” he explained quickly. “I just want you to be happy. That's all, I promise.”

Marinette softened, the memory of Nathaniel talking in his sleep suddenly resurfacing in the strangest of ways and times. She quickly pushed it out of her mind.

“You're a huge dork, you know that?” she told him.

“Well, I mean, I thought the posters would get the message across by now, uh…” he chuckled awkwardly, waving to the decorations adorning majority of the walls. _Mostly anime and comic book superheroes._

“Don't worry, we'll find a way out of this,” she promised him.

“Of course we will,” he agreed. “And, uh, lesson learned. No more prank calls.”

“Aw, really?” Marinette asked teasingly. “Darn it, I was hoping you might use that sweet-talking thing on Chloe, see what she thought of it.”

“Not a chance,” Nathaniel told her stiffly. “Don't even think about it.”

“Well, I guess I can dream, can't I?” she giggled, sticking out her tongue.

“Maybe I should do it to you and send Adrien a recording,” he suggested.

“You wouldn't,” Marinette said in horror.

“Really?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Okay I'll stop teasing you,” Marinette put her hands up in surrender.

“And no more sleepovers,” he added.

“Right, definitely no more sleepovers,” she agreed.

***

A decision that neither of them would be able to keep.

But that's a story for another time.

**Author's Note:**

> find more @writing-from-the-void on tumblr
> 
> thanks for reading, and, as always, leave a kudos and a comment if you enjoyed!
> 
> also, if you find a typo/mistake, please don't hesitate to let me know!


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